


Soon

by bornforwar_archivist



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-31
Updated: 2006-12-31
Packaged: 2020-03-13 09:13:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18937918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bornforwar_archivist/pseuds/bornforwar_archivist
Summary: By Secular AtrophyXena and Ares find that it isn't easy at all to make things right. Sometimes it's hard to know when or how a story should end.





	Soon

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Delenn, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Born For War](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Born_For_War), which closed in 2015. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in March 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Born For War collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bornforwar).
> 
> Summary: Xena and Ares find that it isn't easy at all to make things right. Sometimes it's hard to know when or how a story should end.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine. I'll let you decide what I'm talking about.  
> Spoilers: God Fearing Child, Amphipolis Under Seige, Antony and Cleopatra  
> Sex/Violence/Language: Nope / Bien sur / I have a potty mouth.  
> Subtext: I might consider it in a few decades.  
> This is just a fantasy that has been driving me to distraction. Absolutely no plot. If you somehow find any scintilla of a plot in this, you're probably looking at it through the bottom of a bottle. Oh my god, there's no sex. Amazing, ain't it? Set immediately after Eternal Bonds.
> 
> attempted revision

The familiar blue blaze and _whoosh_ of air signaled his arrival behind her.

"Damn," she whispered, staring straight ahead at the slow roll of the lake's waters and the mesmerizing glitter of the moon's light reflecting off it. Why couldn't he just stay away? Everytime she had to see him, it was harder to resist. He was so arrogant, so rude, so infuriating... so beautiful. She knew it was impossible to run away from love, but she'd damn well try, even if it meant enduring that terrifying ache for him. He'd said that he loved her, but how would he know what love was? He was a god, he couldn't feel. It had to be some sort of defense mechanism. If they felt the way that mortals did, their enormously lengthy lives would have long ago driven them insane.

"Xena?"

His voice gripped something deep inside of her and twisted it mercilessly until she wanted to scream with pain, "Go away."

His fingers brushed her bare shoulder and she spun, her fist heading straight for his jaw. She struck a glancing blow as Ares ducked and caught hold of her wrists. She opened her mouth to start spitting obscenities at him, but all she managed was a strangled growl when his soft soft lips pressed fiercely into hers. She tried to wrench away, but the maddening sensation of his tongue lightly touching her lip and teeth sent a shockwave of solid, aching lust coursing through her core.

He could destroy any woman, get her to do whatever he desired, with only a kiss, and she refused to be just another conquest, another notch on his infamous belt. He'd fucked countless women in past millennia, and every single one of them must have felt just like this when he'd kissed them. She _had_ to remember that...

She scrambled away from him, twisting her hands and nearly managing to land a cross to his temple. She half rolled, half scrabbled until her back pressed against the soothing solidity and reassuring realness of a nearby tree, eyes wide and wary.

"Don't _touch_ me!" her voice rose sharply from a whisper to a scream, and Ares winced.

Hurt, he sneered, "You didn't seem to be fighting me really hard when I kissed you..." His voice trailed off guiltily when he saw the glimmer of a tear sliding down the smooth planes of her cheek. A pink tongue flicked out to catch it, licking it from her face, and at the simple gesture bands of protectiveness soldered themselves about his heart with a jolt. Another drop of warm, salty liquid quickly followed it, but her glimmering blue eyes remained fixed on his, a sheer terror present in them that she'd _never_ displayed before him in their long years of acquaintance.

"Hey," he crooned awkwardly, half crawling over to where she sat. She squinted warily, but didn't lash out when his arms enveloped her, pulling her close, "Don't cry, Xena. I won't hurt you." The tension in her muscles was slowly melting away at his warmth, and he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, "It's alright. You don't have to be scared."

Her head shot up, "I'm not!"

Ares was about to tease her a bit, but before he could make a sound, the sharp points of a pair of sais embedded themselves in his exposed back. He impaled the blond sidekick with a glare, and snarled, " _Go away, Blondie!!_ "

Her weapons slid from his flesh and flung themselves at Gabrielle, forcing her to fall to the ground to avoid being spitted. The next heartbeat, Xena's idiosyncratic uppercut smashed him nearly senseless. Good thing he was a god.

"You _bastard_!" she hissed, "You could have seriously hurt her!"

"Please. I've got more control than that."

She rolled to her feet, an aura of pure violence draping over her like a cloak, and his eyes drifted shut in ecstasy. She slammed him into the tree, hard, and he relished the inhuman strength concealed behind that deceptively slender feminine frame, "You think this is funny, don't you?" Her livid growl didn't quite hide the heartbreak in her voice, and Ares found himself wanting to comfort her. Her red-rimmed eyes were still substantially bright. "You think it's fun to just waltz in here, act like the world is yours, hmm? Act like I'm yours to take?"

"No! I only wanted to talk, honestly!"

She raged on, not hearing his protest, "And the funniest thing must be that I am yours, and I can't do a fucking thing about it!" her voice suddenly fell, "And I don't want to do a fucking thing about it."

 _Shit, now what?_ His hands gripped her arms, shaking her roughly, "Listen to yourself, Xena! You're letting your emotions affect your judgement. Do you remember how dangerous I taught you that was?"

Her cross caught him in the gut, and he rolled with the power of the blow. "I don't need you to remind me," she spat out.

Gabrielle shrieked at the god, "She's never coming back to you! Why can't you get it through your thick skull? You blew it!"

The warriors payed the blond no heed. Coldly, calmly, the Warrior Princess stated, "Remember down in Tartarus? You have a fucking great hand at choosing your romantic locations, by the way. Let me make this clear. You don't love me. You love the conquest; you love the chase. If I ever stopped running, gave into you, you would lose interest, and I'd be left somewhere cold with my heart ripped out. You don't love me."

"Don't think that I don't know what I'm talking about! I've watched you mortals for eons. I've studied how you react, how you feel under different stimulations, I know how you feel when you're in love, and I know that I've never felt it before in my existence, until I found you. I'm not an idiot, Xena. Stop treating me like anything less than a man!"

"You aren't a man, Ares. You can never be a man! I don't know how that godly brain of yours works, but I know you're tormenting me like this out of some morbid fascination about those little toys down on the ground you like to play with!"

"Why won't you trust me?"

Xena felt all anger drain from her body at the forlorn, pleading tone of his voice, "Ares, I have loved you since the first moment I saw you. I have always loved you, and I will continue to love you until I die, but it takes more than love to make a relationship work. There has to be trust, understanding, and the love has to be mutual..."

"I said—"

She shook her head, "You may think you do—"

His mouth on hers silenced her, "I'll prove it. I'll stop the Olympians from hurting you or Eve. I'll kill them if I have—"

Her kiss was intoxicating, and the rest of his oath was swallowed, "Your price is too high."

"No. You'll see. I'll save you all, and then you'll have to trust me. You're going to need me; face it. And I can wait. It won't take long. Just call my name, and I'll come running like that good little dog you've turned me into," a bitter smile graced his face before he claimed her lips in a possessive kiss, "I'll be seeing you soon, my Princess."

Xena refused to speak to the blond the rest of the night, concentrating on the next morning's trip to Amphipolis, and on forgetting the taste of his lips.

 

* * *

"Rome owes me nothing," she murmured, jaw tightly set. She did what she had to, saved Rome and Egypt from the bloody threat of civil war (AN: civil war in Rome, with Egypt dragged along, I mean. Not war between Rome and Egypt); she'd done her hero stuff... so why did she feel so damn dirty?

 

Xena sat up in her bedroll. The familiar greenery of her Thracian homeland surrounded her, but it was frighteningly unable to soothe her as it had done so often. The feverish burn of love in Antony's dark eyes haunted her sleep, so similar to those of another man... oh gods. He'd never forgive her for this. She cringed minutely. It wasn't as if they were on speaking terms after that stunt she'd pulled in Amphipolis, she reasoned. She was in no way obligated to remain faithful to the son of a bitch.

They'd picked up Cyrene and Eve in Alexandria, and camped here for the night after sailing back across the Mediterranean. Xena had originally hoped to reach Amphipolis by nightfall, but she'd forgotten that her mother wasn't used to travelling long distances, and so they would reach the town the next day to drop off Cyrene at her tavern.

She suddenly shivered as an all too familiar tingle touched her nape, and hurriedly covered herself with the blanket. Why, she didn't know. Maybe if he thought she was just cold and didn't sense him, he would go away. He was driving her insane.

His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword, and for a moment he seriously considered running her through. Horrified, he wrapped his arms around his waist, keeping his hands well away from his blade. Antony's drooping eyes and blood-splattered visage invaded his mind's eye.

_"I did love you..."_

_He tumbled to the deck, crashing down the steps, and then he was still, dead fish-eyes staring up into the night skies, where the blood-red moon shone full and hazy, wreathed in a drape of smoke._

Ares shuddered. How long would it be before he was the one of his knees, life-blood draining from him as he stared up at her and whispering those same words?

What sort of Warrior Princess cannot face her fears? Even as she lifted her eyes tentatively to the space that was not quite as empty as it seemed, a soft, sibilant voice raked its claws across the nerves in her spine, _"Warrior Princess' that betrayed the god they'd fallen in love with..."_

A blaze lighted the clearing for a moment, and when the spots dancing in her eyes cleared, he was standing there, an colder expression in his murky brown eyes than she'd seen from him since he'd predicted her death during that whole Dahak business.

Guilty, yet furious at that guilt, she lowered her gaze. Her lips pressed against the icy skin of her knee as she wrapped long, sleek arms around her bent legs, curling herself into a shivering ball.

Spikes of aggression permeated her essence, set amongst the placid depths of her loathing—loathing for him, for the gods, for herself. He sighed. What was it about her? Why did she have to be the one? If it were anyone else, the torment that wracked his entire body day in and day out would... would never happen, because it just _had to be her_.

Her blighted stare shot back up to him. He'd sagged back against some tree, weariness and emptiness evident in his pose, but his eyes, trained on hers, were as blank as ever. Xena smirked, relishing the rush of power being mean gave her, "Tired, are we?"

His jaw barely twitched, but she could sense his rage. "Nice one you pulled on Antony," he praised, carefully emotionless, "Almost as good as how you screwed with me in Amphipolis."

"I aim to please."

"I hear he's sulking in the underworld, muttering choice curses about you."

"I'm not surprised, seeing as I ran him through."

"And how great you looked doing it."

His words had steadily become sharper, harsher, bitterness bleeding through the cracks.

She rubbed her forehead, muffling a groan, "I'm sorry, alright?" She muttered the words, reluctance coating each syllable.

"Whatever for?" Ares growled sarcastically.

"Can't you even accept a fucking apology?" Xena flung the blanket aside, rising to her feet, "I said I'm sorry!"

"No, you're not. You felt nothing, remember?"

"So I lied. So what?"

Ares paused, and the clearing was silent but for the murmuring snores of Gabrielle.

"What do we do now, Xena?"

It was quiet again.

"I don't know."

She glanced up to see Ares staring off into the bright light of false dawn.

"Your pet spider is doing well."

"You remembered to feed Arachne?"

"Of course," Ares sniffed stiffly. "Just because I forgot to feed that idiot cat--"

"Ares."

She gave him a small smile.


End file.
